At
a time when puppetry is gaining increasing currency as a cross-over
art form - collaborating with other forms, notably theatre - the relative
absence of provision for young theatre practitioners to explore the
possible applications of the form to their work is disappointing.
BAC have recently taken up the baton, offering young people the opportunity
to experiment with puppetry in performance outside of a formal educational
setting. BAC’s Young People’s Theatre programme is renowned
for its model colliding emergent artists in the form of theatre-interested
young people with visionary artists from their in-house producing
stable: bringing the programming decisions at the venue into first-hand,
process-led contact with young people committed to BAC’s brand
of theatre making.

This term, BAC selected Blind Summit artist Mark Down (using puppets
by company partner Nick Barnes) to lead the term’s project.
BAC producer Richard Dufty explained the logic behind the decision:
‘Blind Summit's exciting no-holds barred mix of puppetry and
live performance is something that we thought would really inspire
the participants in the course, overturning any prejudices that they
might have had about the stuffiness of traditional puppetry’.
The process was a term’s work exploring puppetry and theatre
practice, devising the show and ultimately producing a showing of
work, which focused very much on the techniques acquired by the students
in manipulating and characterising the puppets. For Mark, the process
was very much centred upon offering the participants the chance to
explore the theatrical potential of puppetry, offering ‘confidence,
fun, access to new performing skills, a physical exploration of emotions…a
discussion about what theatre is and can be’. For Dufty too,
an important feature of YPT’s process is the level of creative
responsibility offered to the young people: ‘ownership of, and
responsibility for, the final show and the creative decisions made
to get there, remains in the hands of the participants’

So what did the participants take from the process? Laura Glover,
a student who has gone on to work further with Blind Summit, described
the approach as ‘liberating’, allowing the group to devise
more effectively by removing inhibitions about what could be explored.
Focussing on the puppetry eliminated many of the issues surrounding
collaboration with other performers at the same time as offering a
greater concentration of ideas through the parameters provided by
the form. Tom McDonnell, also now working with the company, found
the process ‘challenging’ in the level of skills it demanded,
stretching performance skills through demanding a focus on physical
technique. Both participants became excited by the possibilities opened
up by using puppetry, explaining that they were interested in ‘looking
at scenes only a puppet could do’ and in the ‘potential
interaction and relationship with puppets’.

From the perspective of the puppetry world, this seems to have been
an enormously positive process, enthusing potential new practitioners
in the art form. Both students interviewed have since gone on to join
the Little Devils and hope to extend their skills as well as continuing
to work with Blind Summit. As McDonnell put it ‘It feels more
satisfying achieving something with a puppet than with just yourself’
For Mark, the main learning from the project focused on a playfulness
of approach: ’the most important thing for participants is enjoying
it. If the performers enjoy doing the work then they will put everything
into it. Some find it harder than others, but they can all achieve
high levels of skill.’ This playfulness was arguably facilitated
by the theatrical emphasis of the project, working through improvisation,
considering a physical exploration of emotion and maintaining a focus
on performance skills.

The relationship between professional training and community projects
of this sort is an interesting one. At least one participant (Letty
Gilbert) has gone on to the BA in Puppetry at Central School of Speech
of Drama. At the same time as being fun for all - and an inspiration
to pursue professional training - this project is in many ways the
model of an apprenticeship as an alternative to the academic choice.

For Mark, the process offered the opportunity to introduce a particular
paradigm of working specific to Blind Summit. He states ‘Blind
Summit is not interested in using puppets to be angels or devils or
magical beasts or to tell fairy tales. We see puppets as a way to
explore people's relationships to things - money, cars, drugs. This
is never more relevant than in the consumerist world we inhabit today
where we are encouraged to see ourselves as things’. For Blind
Summit, this is what makes puppetry relevant and exciting and imbuing
the participants with an enthusiasm for this approach has meant that
several have gone on to work with the company on other projects.

Unsurprisingly, apprenticeship, with its powerful blend of specific
artistic guidance backing up technical training here emerges as a
highly relevant and effective means of training emergent puppeteers
for work in both theatre and puppetry. Further to this, the process
also says something about the potential for developing artists by
focusing on the point where puppetry meets theatre – offering,
according to the testimonial of participants, an accelerated devising
process, highly effective collaborative method and opening the potential
for a range of new practitioners to experiment with puppetry. As Dufty
states, ‘For almost all of them this was their first taste of
puppeteering and a lot of them have, through this process, developed
a firm commitment to it as an art form.’